Grant to shed light on sun

SCOTTISH researchers have won a grant of more than £750,000 as part of a project that aims to further human understanding of how the sun works.

Experts from Dundee University are hoping to understand the basic physical processes that go on in plasmas on the sun and throughout the universe.

The project will focus on the solar corona, the outer atmosphere of the sun.

Loading article content

Magnetic loops in the solar corona, solar flares and coronal mass ejections are among the phenomena that scientists still cannot fully explain.

Plasma, an ionised gas, clings to magnetic fields in the sun's atmosphere.

Share article

This means the magnetic loops in the atmosphere can be seen by high-powered telescopes due to the radiating plasma.

Finding out why the loops are so much hotter than the solar surface is a key aim of the three-year study at the university.

Promoted Stories

Comments & Moderation

We moderate all comments on Herald Scotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well and trust you then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules

Our Colleagues

Ipsoregulated

This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standardards Organisations's Editors' Code of Practice. If you have a compaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then please contact the editor here. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can contact IPSO here